LACSON-SOTTO: NO TO DEATH, YES TO SUPER MAX PRISON FOR DRUG LORDS

Senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson says he will withdraw a bill he filed to reinstate the death penalty in the Philippines.

In the first-ever Lacson-Sotto Meet the Press event, the presidential candidate for Partido Reporma said that it is better to spare the life of a criminal than to wrongly execute an innocent person.

Lacson shared that he has given the matter a long thought, and has decided that there are better solutions other than execution.

From a staunch supporter of capital punishment, Lacson said that he has changed his stance on the death penalty for heinous crimes, even as he pushed for life imprisonment and penal reforms as a better alternative.

 He supported Senate President Vicente "Tito" Sotto III, who suggested to confine drug lords in a "super max" penitentiary, with no means of communication with the outside world.

 Lacson said that it would be better for convicts to be imprisoned for life, with “nothing to do but to regret their crimes for the rest of their lives.”

 But the senator also stressed it is important to reform the penitentiary system, to prevent a repeat of favors being granted to moneyed convicts.